College Basketball: Butler knocks out La Salle

That’s all anyone wanted to know after La Salle ran out of gas in a 69-58 Atlantic 10 tournament loss to Butler Friday at Barclays Center.

It’s been 21 years since the Explorers went to the dance. Coach John Giannini was 29 when Randy Woods led them into the East regional.

Giannini counts big wins over Butler, Virginia Commonwealth and Villanova, along with a tie for third in the Atlantic 10 Conference as criteria helping the Explorers on Selection Sunday.

“The crazy thing is if you talk to the people who study this we’ve been in pretty much all year,” Giannini said. “It would be pretty sad for us to lose it in the last two days. We must have some substance on our resume. There’s no question if we win today we’re in and now frankly we might be at the mercy of others a little bit.”

The fourth-seeded Explorers (21-9) played hard but weren’t quite as polished as the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (26-7), who beat Dayton Thursday in the opening round.

The Explorers led by no more than one point and trailed by as much as a dozen points to a Bulldogs team that except for coach Brett Stevens, looked like the cast of the winners in the motion picture “Hoosiers.”

Tyrone Garland contributed 17 points off the bench for the Explorers, who got 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds from forward Jerrell Wright and a game-high 16 points from guard Tyreek Duren.

“The season’s not over,” Duren said. “I wouldn’t say we’re nervous. Depending on how other teams do will determine our fate in the NCAA Tournament. This isn’t our last game.”

The Explorers were in big trouble when Jones scored inside to give the Bulldogs a 64-52 lead with 5:52 remaining. The Explorers couldn’t get closer than six points the rest of the way. And they faded down the homestretch. Giannini thinks back-to-back 20 win seasons will mean something to the NCAA selection committee. And he’ll be keeping an eye on other schools close to the so-called bubble.

“One of the schools in our situation is Boise State,” Giannini said. “I think (coach Leon Rice) said when he was in the situation before he watched every score and he made himself nuts and he’s not going to do it. For the record I’m going to make myself nuts.

“We’ll win and die with every play in these other games. We know who needs to win. We know who needs to lose. Hopefully we get a break and we end up being judged on 30 games as opposed to our last two.

“Who, by the way,” Giannini noted, “are losses to potential Final Four teams.”

The Explorers ran out of gas. Giannini can only hope they haven’t run out of luck.